Last-minute holiday shoppers kick it into overdrive

Kevin Johnson knew exactly what he wanted on Friday when he walked up to the counter at the Best Buy Mobile specialty store at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach.

He asked for a fifth-generation iPod digital music player, pulled out more than $300 in cash and was finally able to cross off his daughter's name from his Christmas shopping list.

Johnson said procrastination and a lack of time has kept him from completing his holiday shopping.

"I'm going shopping this weekend. I'm going to shop till the last day," said Johnson, 36, a business owner who lives in Redondo Beach. "Every year I say I'm going to start early, but I never do."

For the final weekend before Christmas, retailers are expecting to stay busy until Christmas Eve to serve late shoppers.

The top-selling item at the Best Buy Mobile - and at electronics stores and websites nationwide - has been the iPad Mini.

"That's been what everybody has been asking for, but it's been real constrained so everybody keeps running out," said Rick Acosta, store manager at the compact version of the electronics superstore.

Acosta said that while his store was out of the iPad Mini, a new shipment could arrive any day to meet the demand of last-minute shoppers.

To motivate consumers to stop by Best Buy stores in the final days, the retailer started a sale for Friday and today on the Samsung Galaxy S3 cellphone for Sprint.

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At Paseo Colorado, the tony open-air mall in Pasadena, retailers have seen strong sales this holiday season because of consumers' increased disposable income and good weather, mall General Manager Michael De Leon said.

This weekend should also be busy, he said.

"I definitely expect all of the shoppers who have earmarked a high-ticket item to come back and finally make that purchase, like high-priced jewelry, things of that nature," De Leon said. "Especially the guys, they tend to wait till the last minute."

The mall does not make a special promotion for these final days before Christmas, instead focusing on the start of this shopping season, De Leon said.

At RC Street Shop, a Long Beach hobby store, "We're expecting some big numbers" for the final weekend," manager Jeff Horton said.

"I think there's a lot of last-minute people," said Horton, who caters to hobbyists wanting to purchase or repair radio-controlled toy cars, airplanes and boats.

RC Street had no plans for special promotions in these final shopping days.

"At this point, pretty much all the decisions have been made. There's not a whole bunch that we can do to change it," he said.

On Friday at The Mulberry Cottage, a specialty boutique in Torrance, Leslie Hoop was poring over her computer screen and a stack of papers as she worked to fill online orders for jams and jellies, soaps and tiny collectable mouse figurines called Wee Forest Folk.

"It's crazy here. ... We just shipped hundreds of packages," said Hoop, the store's manager. "We expect to be busy for last-minute items. We still have plenty of stuff. It's just we're running out of some things."

Some of the sold-out items included cocoa, mulling spices and ornaments.

"We are open Christmas Eve for really last-minute people," she said. "A lot of men come in the last day and get a gift certificate because they've waited so long."

At Landis' Labyrinth, a small toy store in Manhattan Beach, Manager Maya Muckelroy greeted guests Friday. The shop had put an ad and coupon in the newspaper Friday in hopes of drawing shoppers who have not crossed off every name on their shopping lists.

But Muckelroy also had her eye on sales in the weeks and months after the holidays.

"A lot of last-minute shoppers and even people who are just starting to shop," Muckelroy said of this weekend's expected business. "I hope for new local customers to come in so they come back when they need something."